


Miles From Way Back When

by Molly_Hats



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: Although it’s Justice Lords so what’re you expecting?, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Brainwashing, Bruce is manipulative af, But I take some liberties, Disturbing Themes, Episode: s02e11-12 A Better World, F/M, Gen, Inspired by Justice Lords, Justice Lords, Language, Lazarus Pit, Psychological Torture, Stephanie Brown is Robin, This gets really dark guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 16:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14048451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molly_Hats/pseuds/Molly_Hats
Summary: “Every human interaction is, on some level, manipulation,” Tim said.  “What’s the difference between frightening the criminals of a city into giving up crime and frightening the entire world into never taking it up at all?  Only scale.”Stephanie Brown comes back to life and finds a world very different from the one she left—particularly the Robin she never got to say goodbye to.





	1. Chapter 1

“I’m in,” Steph said. On the other end, static was her only answer. “Dammit!” They must’ve blocked her connection to Oracle and the others with some sort of interference. Nevertheless, she kept going, turning the corner cautiously to see the control center. And working at it—

“Tim?” Stephanie whispered.

Tim turned, and the lenses of his mask widened slightly. She couldn’t dwell on that, though, as several robots attacked her. 

She whipped out a Roberang and sliced through one, kicking at another and leaping up onto the third, ramming her staff into its “shoulder” and prying at it, trying to rip out its arm. Another bot slammed her off of her perch, but she flipped in midair and landed in a crouch with her hand down, sliding back a bit, staff ready in her other hand. 

“Stop!” The boy commanded, and the robots froze. Steph stood up warily as he slowly descended the stairs, his steps so heavy that she started to wonder if he had some sort of metal prostheses like Cyborg. “Steph?”

“It’s me,” Steph said, eyes darting between the immobile robots as she moved to greet him. 

“They told me you were dead,” Tim said, his hand shaking as he reached toward her cheek.

Steph stepped forward, taking his wrist and bringing his trembling hand up to her face. “I was. They told me _you_ were dead.”

“I wasn’t.” He caressed her cheek, catching a tear mid-fall and brushing it away, his gloved thumb tracing the arc over and over again. “Stephanie…”

“Why are you working for _them_?” Stephanie asked.

“The world changed after you died,” Tim said. He looked away, toward the ground. “I changed.”

“They killed Lex Luthor in cold blood, Robin!” Steph insisted. 

“It had to be done.”

“How can you say that?” Stephanie asked furiously. “Tim, you’re one of the most compassionate people I know.”

Tim pulled his hand away, turning away from her and starting to walk. Steph trailed about a meter behind. “Dick. Jason. You,” he motioned with his hands as he listed them. “My parents. Kon. Thousands of others.” Tim hit a button on his gauntlet, and several scrolling holograms of words and images immediately popped up around him. He turned back to Steph, his hands spreading to indicate the abundance of data around him. “I memorize the names. I have files full of people who died because we let that scum live. People with families.” His fists clenched, and his face looked sickly in the green glow of the ghostly images whirling past. “It’s _not_ compassionate to stand by and let that go on.”

“But what about justice?” Steph asked. 

“If nobody commits any crimes,” Tim said, meeting her eyes between screens, “we don’t need justice.”

He smiled and dismissed the holograms with a button on his wrist as he walked back to her. It wasn’t a smirk; she could see her old Robin in it, innocent and hopeful and idealistic, sure that there was a solution to everything.

“Tim, fear isn’t paradise. There’s no freedom here! Free speech, free press, nothing! It’s a dictatorship! A dystopia!”

“Steph, look at me!” Tim commanded. “Listen to me! You wonder how we got here? Why everyone is okay with this?”

“Because Superman could kick their ass if they tried to resist,” Steph said, rolling her eyes. “That’s not proof that you have, what’s the term? Consent of the governed.”

“Every human interaction is, on some level, manipulation,” Tim said. “What’s the difference between frightening the criminals of a city into giving up crime and frightening a world into never taking it up at all? Only scale.”

“You believe that?” Steph hissed in disbelief.

“Yes, Steph.” He stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders. “I do.”

She stared into his eyes for a long moment as if trying to memorize him, then drove her knee into his groin. He grunted, his grip loosening, and Steph leapt past him, vaulting over one of the dormant robots and dashing for the control panel. 

“Stop her!” Tim yelled, and the robots whirred to life as Steph frantically punched numbers into the keyboard.

“Come on, come onEEEEAGHH!” Stephanie screamed as an electric shock coursed through her from the keyboard. She dimly recognized Tim coming toward her as her vision faded.

:::

She woke up in a cell with her arms cuffed above her head, several wires monitoring her torso, and her feet securely fastened. She tugged at the cuffs and looked around. Her cell door had holes in it, for breathing, probably, or talking.

“Hello? Anybody out there?” She yelled.

“Just me,” Tim said, stepping into view from the side.

“Have you just been hanging around so you could make a dramatic entrance?”

Tim’s lip quirked at that, and Steph’s heart started beating faster. She heard a beeping that matched the beats. 

“Are you...taking my heartbeat?” Steph asked.

Tim nodded as the beeping grew more rapid.

“Creepy.”

“ _Necessary_.”

“Right,” Steph rolled her eyes. “Here to give me the recruitment pitch for your little cult?” 

“Stephanie,” he said in that scolding, patronizing tone she had foolishly hoped he’d given up, “you’re still thinking like a little kid. Right and wrong, black and white...you haven’t changed at all.” Tim pulled back his cowl, his long black hair spilling out. “I envy you. You still have that...idealism. Innocence. Immaturity.”

“If it’s immature to not be pro-murder and Big Brother bullsh**, call me Peter futzing Pan,” she spat.

“Steph, please. You can join us. I don’t want to lose you again,” he pleaded, his hands trailing on the glass of the cell door.

“Sorry, Robin. You’re just gonna have to kill me.”

:::

“I’ll tell you what I told him,” Steph growled at the man with the silver bat on his chest. “I’d rather die than join you.”

“You’re unoriginal.”

“That’s your complaint?”

Bruce turned away. “They all said that. Even Tim.”

Steph drew breath quickly before she could stop herself. “What made him change his mind?”

“Superman killed him.”

“What?” Steph blurted out. 

“I brought him back.” Bruce said, as though that fixed everything. “But he was stubborn. We had to resort to...other methods before we tried again.”

Stephanie’s blood ran cold. “The futz did you do to him, you sadistic bastard? He’s your _son_!”

“And that’s why I wanted him by my side.”

Steph slumped in her restraints. “How...how could…”

“Stephanie, I know we’ve had disagreements, but Tim cares about you.”

“Futz off.”

“I have his blessing to give you the ‘recruitment pitch,’ as you put it. With somewhat…stronger...visual aids.”

“You’re threatening me.”

“What gave it away?”


	2. A Year Ago

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That stuff I cut is back with a vengeance.

“Bruce, when I became Robin, it was to keep you away from the darkness. From this. Joining you now would defeat that. It’d be going against everything I believe in,” Tim said, slow and measured, his hands strangely still in the thick cuffs.

Bruce met his eyes. “I’m sorry, then.”

Tim looked up through his long black bangs. “Me, too.”

Bruce stood up and left the room, slipping into the viewing chamber. The white-caped Man of Steel was already there, leaning close to the window. He turned when Bruce walked in, and spoke once the door closed.

“I’m sorry, Bruce,” Superman said. “But he can't stay here and we can’t let him go. He’s too dangerous.”

“I can handle him,” Bruce growled, not taking his eyes from the boy on the other side of the one-way glass. 

Superman seized his arm, and Batman’s head snapped back to glare at him.

“Bruce.”

“Just because you gave up on your son doesn’t mean I’ll give up on mine,” Bruce said, turning back to the boy.

WHAM! Clark slammed Bruce’s face into the glass so hard that the boy on the other side’s head jerked up, but the one way mirror didn’t even crack. Clark stood over Bruce as the black-clad man slid to the ground. His eyes glowed red. “Never speak that way about Jon _again_.”

“I have a way to secure his loyalty,” Bruce said. “Please. One more chance.”

Clark’s eyes returned to normal, and his face softened. “Fine,” he said as Bruce scrambled upright. “But only one.”

:::

“RYAAAAGHHHAA!” Tim screamed as he emerged from the Lazarus pit, lunging at Bruce. Immediately a few of the Lords swept in and grabbed his flailing arms and legs. Tim bared his teeth, a wild look in his eyes as the Lazarus water dropped off of his naked body.

They forced him into a transparent cell that resembled the display case in the cave where Jason’s costume resided.

“Well.” Clark said behind him.

“Hmm.”

“Should I?” Clark asked, laying a large hand on his shoulder.

“I’m fine,” Bruce said, shaking off his hand. He approached the cage. “Hello, Timothy.”

Tim’s eyes slowly returned to normal, the pupils shrinking, the fists that had been pounding on the walls loosening into open hands. The one thing that stayed the same was the expression in his eyes. They glared at Bruce with pure hatred. 

He pressed his palm to the glass. “Not enough to kill me? You had to bring me back?” Tim snarled. 

“Yes.” Bruce said gruffly. “I care about you, Tim. I want you with me.” He paused. “Whatever it takes.”

“Then kill me again.” Tim smiled, an empty, manic, taunting smile. “And again. I’m not helping you. You won’t break me!”

“Tim...I’m not trying to break you. I’m trying to help you. Help you help us make a better world, where nobody will suffer like we did.” 

“And in the process, make everybody stay in line with fear. Look, speaking as somebody who lives with anxiety? It’s not really ‘living’ to be in a state of constant, relentless terror.”

“Think of all the people I could have saved if I’d just killed the Joker when I had the chance, all those years ago.” Bruce said. “If Clark killed Luthor before he could kill West.”

“This is about Jason, then,” Tim said flatly. “It’s always about Jason, even when you deny it, even when you won’t say his name.”

“Timothy,” Bruce said menacingly.

“Kill me,” Tim said, spreading his arms. “Then I can go join Jason, your sons together at last.”

“Tim, please, I want you. I need you. I’ve lost everyone else...I can’t lose you, too, not when I have a chance to save you.”

“Sorry, ‘dad,’” Tim said, “But I have no interest in ruling the galaxy as father and son.”

“Not ruling. Protecting. People like Stephanie.”

“Don’t, Bruce,” Tim said, his eyes narrowing and losing all mockery. “Don’t.”

“We took down Sionis with lethal force.”

“What he did...that doesn’t make that right. That’s not you! That’s not us! We don’t stoop to their level!” He slammed his fist into the glass for emphasis.

“Sometimes you have to make sacrifices!” Bruce shouted. “That’s what Batman is! Giving everything to make sure no eight year old boy ever has to watch their parents die again.”

Bruce took several deep breaths, looking into Tim’s face, trying to decipher it. 

“Tell Stephanie’s grave that ‘it wasn’t right’ to kill that bastard,” he continued. “Tell the people he tortured, the people he had his sights set on, that we should have let him go free like he always did.”

“Don’t use her like that,” Tim snarled. 

“I’m not ‘using’ her, I’m stating facts! But if you don’t believe me, I’ll have to show you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Computer. Play data package ‘Lazarus A.’”

“Confirmed.” Immediately, images blossomed around Tim, explosions and carnage and violence.

Bruce raised his hands. “All the people we’ve lost, Tim. Listen to them. We could have saved them. With your help, we can keep any of this from happening again. You’re the Robin I trust at my side, making a better world.”

“SHUT UP!” Tim yelled as the videos began to play around him. He curled up in a fetal position in the prison, turned away from the front and center footage of Stephanie Brown’s final hours. He squeezed his eyes shut, and covered his ears, grimacing at the screams as if screwing his face up could stop the sound.

“It’s not my doing, Tim. It’s what I _stopped_.” Bruce knelt and placed a gloved hand against the smooth wall. “I’ll be back, Tim. Consider my offer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frick this got dark.
> 
> As opposed to all that Justice Lords fluff, I guess.


	3. Chapter 3

“Robin? Robin, come in!” Barbara calmly but urgently hissed into the transmitter. 

“You can’t raise her?” Dick asked, leaning on her shoulders worriedly.

She shoved his arms off and pushed her chair a bit away. “I’m still trying!”

Several terrifying hours later, the doors opened with a grinding sound, revealing Robin.

“Steph!” Dick yelled joyfully, running over and scooping her up in a bridal carry. He rushed her over to Barbara. “We were so worried! We thought you were a goner for sure—or worse!”

“Like Tim?” Steph said with a venom, her tired eyes meeting his. 

Dick didn’t stumble per se, but lurched a bit. “Steph, what do you mean?”

“Put me down, Dick,” Steph demanded. 

He complied.

“So when you said he was dead,” Steph said flatly, “you could’ve just said he was brainwashed. You didn’t need all of that Obi Wan ‘certain point of view’ bullsh**.”

“Steph!” Dick protested, hurt. “What do you—“

“Dick,” Barbara said, laying a hand on his arm. She approached Steph, holding out a hand. “You saw Tim? He’s brainwashed?”

Steph nodded. 

“I was so sure...I saw the body. Hell, I tested it, made sure it was his.” Dick ran a hand through his cut hair. “We were leading the resistance by then, but Tim was so young, we let him go home to his dad. We...I should have known he wouldn’t stop.”

“Batman said Superman killed Tim and he brought him back,” Steph said. “He threatened to do the same to me.”

Barbara pulled something from one of the zillion hiding spots on her wheelchair and whacked it on the desk, startling both Dick and Steph, then handed it to the girl. Steph shivered as she took the cold pack and pressed it to her bruised shoulder.

“That’s not...Bruce wouldn’t go that far,” Dick insisted, sounding like he was trying to convince himself. “Not to Tim.”

“We used to think he’d never kill,” Barbara said. “He taught us to put together evidence, and the evidence is pointing to this.”

“Dammit!” Dick suddenly yelled, punching the wall. 

“We have a training room for a reason, Grayson,” Barbara reprimanded. “You can take it there.”

Dick twisted his hand in his other one idly. “I’m fine. Go on.”

“How did you escape?” Barbara asked Steph. 

“Power outtage,” Steph said. “Popped up out of nowhere, created some chaos, shorted out the security. I slipped out before anyone could get to me.”

“You’re sure you weren’t tracked or followed?” 

“Not followed, and the scanner didn’t pick up any tracking devices,” Steph said. She lowered the ice pack as if trying to find another sore spot, then shifted it back up to the bruise. “Enough about me. What happened to Tim?”

“He wanted us,” Dick said before Barbara could. “He wanted to recruit me, but I don’t think he was ever going to trust Oracle.”

“As he shouldn’t,” Barbara said with a note of pride despite the somber atmosphere.

Dick smiled, eager for the chance to do so at something, but sobered quickly. 

Steph watched him, face stony, eyebrows stubbornly together to show him that she still hadn’t forgiven him.

He didn’t expect her to, even though that was what this was for. She wanted him to make it make sense, make it not hurt. He couldn’t. He could only tell the truth.

“He caught Tim. At first he wasn’t going to hurt him I think, he just made it clear he had him to Oracle, taunting us to come and get him. I went after him.”

__

_“Nightwing. You came.”_

_Dick turned, his long hair sweeping across his back. “Of course I did. I don’t leave kids in the hands of power hungry despots. It’s against my moral code.”_

_“Dick,” Bruce said with a sigh, “I’m not your enemy.”_

_“With friends like these…”_

_“They haven’t hurt him. We won’t hurt him if you tell us what we need to know.”_

_“You’re leveraging the welfare of a child against intel?” Dick said, half disbelieving, half laughing. “You expect me to believe that? Have you pulled a total 180?”_

_Bruce paused for a few seconds, cape snapping in the wind. “Where is Barbara?”_

_Dick said nothing._

_“Dick, I’m not threatening him. But Clark is losing patience. If I don’t give him a new target, I don’t know what he’ll do.”_

_“Then help us,” Dick urged. “We can rescue Tim together.”_

_“It’s too late,” Bruce said. “Tell me where she is now, and everyone can go on with their lives. You can join the Justice Lords if you wish. Help us make a better world, like we tried in Gotham.”_

_Dick shook his head and chuckled humorlessly. “You must be kidding.”_

_“I understand the others balking at using fear to keep everyone in line, but not us. Fear has always been our trade, Dick.”_

_Dick launched himself off of the building, flipping in midair. “Sorry Bats,” he yelled on the way down, “no deal.”  
_

Dick looked at his hands as he concluded his story. Barbara rested a hand on his arm. 

“It’s not your fault,” Barbara said.

“I should’ve done more...I was so sure he was bluffing.”

“It’s not like Bruce to kill him,” Steph said. “Even if he was going to bring him back, and he didn’t directly kill him.”

“Well, we know—“

“From what you said, it sounds like Bruce was trying to protect you and Tim from Lord Superman,” Steph said. 

“Stephanie, I know this is hard for you to process—“ Barbara began, slowly wheeling toward her.

“No! I’m not making excuses for him!” Steph said. “I’m saying...I don’t think Bruce meant for Tim to die.”

“You think that could be a source of friction?” Barbara asked, considering.

“I hope so,” Steph said. “I hope that’s enough to rip the superfriends apart.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from “Shame” by Bastille.
> 
> Anybody remember Death and the Maidens? That story is underutilized and featured one of the most disturbing forms of brainwashing in comics imho.


End file.
